EDEN PRAIRIE, http://www.authenticspanthersshop.com/-20-reto-berra-jersey_c-463.html Minn. -- The man in the ski cap and hoodie was staring through a window at the new purple banner announcing the Minnesota Vikings' division crown. From behind, as he stood in a cafeteria, this average-size Joe could have passed for a food-service worker or a fan who had won a contest for a tour of the team facility. Case Keenum does not look like a quarterback drafted by an NFL team for a damn good reason: He wasn't.
It was a Tuesday, the players' off day following their division-clinching beatdown of the Cincinnati Bengals in mid-December, and an operations crew had just hung the banner in the John Stockton Youth jersey rafters two minutes earlier. Keenum doesn't believe in off days, so he was the first to see this tribute to the 2017 NFC North champs -- the last of its kind to hang over the indoor practice field in the Minneapolis suburb of Eden Prairie, ID'd on the street corner by a tattered Viking ship encased in snow and ice. The team will pack everything later this winter and move to upgraded digs in Eagan, about 20 miles to the east. Nobody is sure whether Keenum will be along for the ride.
And that's fine and dandy for now. Keenum is not thinking about free agency -- whether he might head to another franchise in a package deal with offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur, or if Minnesota could still prefer the returning Sam Bradford and/or the returned Teddy Bridgewater as its 2018 starter. Short term? Keenum is thinking about beating the New Orleans Saints in Sunday's divisional round matchup at U.S. Bank Stadium. Not-so-short term? Keenum is thinking about becoming the first quarterback in NFL history to lead a team onto its own field with a chance to win the Reggie Wayne Womens Jersey Super Bowl.
"I don't think anybody wants to be sitting here in February and watch somebody else play in it," Keenum said. He retreated a bit from that statement, swearing that the team wasn't looking ahead at a magical shot to earn the franchise's first Super Bowl championship, in its own building, after four losses in the big game and no appearances since the 1976 season. Keenum apologized for the cliché, but said the Vikings were taking it day by day. If there's anyone who knows that NFL life is a day-to-day proposition, it's the quarterback of the NFC's No. 2 seed.
Keenum's striped gray ski cap was pulled tight over his hair and ears and down to his eyebrows, making him appropriately hard to recognize. He's the improbable leader of a faceless contender, and maybe he represents the look and the formula that will finally deliver these earnest Minnesotans their long, lost ring. The Vikings have had Hall of Fame quarterbacks, quarterbacks who won Super Bowls for other franchises and former top overall draft picks.
But the Vikings have never had a quarterback quite like Casey Austin Keenum -- undrafted, unwanted, un-everything -- who led them to a 13-3 record as the second-most-accurate passer in the league (67.6 percent). Of the quarterbacks starting playoff games this season, Keenum had the best regular-season Total QBR at 69.6 -- second only to the now-injured Carson Wentz's 75.7, and better than Tom Brady's 67.2. Football Outsiders ranked Keenum ahead of Brady as the NFL's top quarterback in 2017 in DVOA, a metric that measures a player's value per snap over an average player at his position.
Not bad for a former Houston Texans practice-squad arm and deposed Los Angeles Rams starter who arrived in March with a 9-15 career record and an upside the Vikings thought was worth a mere one-year deal for a lousy $2 million plus incentives. But this staggering run comes as no surprise to Keenum or to his http://www.authenticwildstore.com/-92-evgeny-kuznetsov-jersey_c-446.html supporters, who were just as confused when he had just one Division I offer out of high school as they were when he went undrafted in 2012. Keenum is not driven to prove the doubters wrong half as much as he's driven to prove those true believers right.
The believers are multiplying by the week. Keenum has already made himself a lot of money this season, no matter what happens against the Saints on Sunday -- people up and down the Vikings' organization would concede that much, even if some would rather not pay up. An executive from another team who has watched six recent game films of Keenum predicted some franchise will offer him $20 million a year, and that the quarterback would likely leave the Vikings if they offer him $15 million a pop.
Keenum's striped gray ski cap was pulled tight over his hair and ears and down to his eyebrows, making him appropriately hard to recognize. He's the improbable leader of a faceless contender, and Demaryius Thomas Womens Jersey maybe he represents the look and the formula that will finally deliver these earnest Minnesotans their long, lost ring. The Vikings have had Hall of Fame quarterbacks, quarterbacks who won Super Bowls for other franchises and former top overall draft picks.
But the Vikings have never had a quarterback quite like Casey Austin Keenum -- undrafted, unwanted, un-everything -- who led them to a 13-3 record as the second-most-accurate passer in the league (67.6 percent). Of the quarterbacks starting playoff games this season, Keenum had the best regular-season Total QBR at 69.6 -- second only to the now-injured Carson Wentz's 75.7, and better http://www.authenticbluejaysstore.com/Authentic-Michael-Saunders-Jersey than Tom Brady's 67.2. Football Outsiders ranked Keenum ahead of Brady as the NFL's top quarterback in 2017 in DVOA, a metric Brandon LaFell Authentic Jersey that measures a player's value per snap over an average player at his position.
Not bad for a former Houston Texans practice-squad arm and deposed Los Angeles Rams starter who arrived in March with a 9-15 career record and an upside the Vikings thought was worth a mere one-year deal for a lousy $2 million plus incentives. But this staggering run comes as no surprise to Keenum or to his supporters, who were just as confused when he had just one Division I offer out of high school as they were when he went undrafted in 2012. Keenum is not driven to prove the doubters wrong half as much as he's driven to prove those true believers right.
The believers are multiplying by the week. Keenum has already made himself a lot of money this season, no matter what happens against the Saints on Sunday -- people up and down the Vikings' organization would concede that much, even if some would rather not pay up. An executive from another team who has watched six recent game films of Keenum predicted some franchise will offer him $20 million a year, and that the quarterback would likely leave the Vikings if they offer him $15 million a pop.

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